


Alec Goes to Winslow

by Tumach



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 18,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24205474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tumach/pseuds/Tumach
Summary: When Alec is picked up by a police officer for truancy, he claims to attend Winslow High School, figuring that it will be easier to get away from Winslow than the police station.  When he attempts to distract the officer by pointing out noises coming from a nearby locker, he instead becomes a witness in an ongoing investigation.  Unable to disappear without raising questions, Alec Wilborn finds himself a newly transferred student at Winslow.
Comments: 29
Kudos: 173





	1. Truant

Alec was relaxing in a coffee shop. It wasn't exactly the best one in town, but it was close to the loft, had internet, and made coffee that was much better than he could. That, and it was away from his teammates. In this case, most importantly, it was away from Lisa, who was in a particularly vindictive mood. There were times when irritating someone could be entertaining, and times where it was just going to make entertaining yourself harder. This was one of the latter times.

A shadow fell over his table, and Alec looked up from his phone. To his mild surprise, there was a police officer glowering down at him. Alec thought back, but couldn't think of anything he'd done that might attract the police. Lately. In his civilian identity. That wouldn't attract the PRT instead. Yeah, he was completely innocent.

“Yes?” he drawled.

“Don't you have somewhere else to be, kid?” the cop frowned down at him.

Alec blinked. “Um, no?” What, was this guy telling him to clear out? He wasn't certain, but he had the vague impression that police were usually a lot more officious about that sort of thing.

Clearly irritated by his answer, the cop continued “Christmas break ended yesterday, kid. Aren't you supposed to be in school?”

School? What, this guy was a truant officer? Brockton Bay even had those? “No, I'm older than I look,” Alec replied, rolling his eyes. Seriously, this was just obnoxious.

“Sure you are,” Officer Asshole replied. “You wouldn't happen to have any ID to prove that, would you?”

Alec did have a false ID. Granted, it was only meant to get him into clubs and buy alcohol, but he did have it.

… it was in the loft. He'd only been going out to get coffee, so he hadn't bothered to get it. “I don't have it on me.”

Officer Asshole’s scowl might have twitched into a self satisfied smirk. “I didn't think so. Come with me, you can either tell me which school you attend, or we can do this the hard way and bring you down to the police station while I figure it out.” He grabbed Alec's arm.

Alec considered his options. He could run, but he didn't think he could get away without using his power. And then his civilian identity would be compromised, he'd have to lay low, and that just seemed like a real pain.

He could refuse to say anything, but then he'd get dragged to a police station, and they would start looking for him in their records. They probably wouldn't be happy when they didn't find anything. Or, even worse, they might actually figure out who he was.

Or he could lie and claim he attended some school, then escape from there. That sounded fairly simple.

So, what school to choose? Arcadia was out, what with the Wards all attending there, it probably had better security than the police station. Alec tried to remember what other schools were in Brockton Bay.

He vaguely remembered Brian mentioning that he was glad his sister didn't go to one particular high school. What was it? Wilson? Winston? Oh, right.

“Fine, I go to Winslow. Happy?”

“No, I'm not,” Trooper Truant said in a tone that sounded pretty satisfied to Alec. “Come with me, kid. I'm taking you back to school.” 

Yay, a ride in a police car. What fun.

Officer Asshole (Alec was sticking with that one) marched him out. Well, he tried to march. Alec dragged along after him, giving just enough resistance to throw him off his stride. Officer Asshole was just about to push Alec into the back of his car when Alec said “Wait, aren't you forgetting something?”

“What?” the cop said, barely glancing Alec's way.

“Aren't you gonna put your handcuffs on me? Every time I've dreamed of this, I'm always in handcuffs by now. I'm kinda disappointed.” he wiggled his eyebrows.

“Shut up, kid,” Officer Asshole growled, shoving him into the back of the car.

Alec proceeded to “give directions” the whole way to Winslow.

-=T=-

By the time they arrived at the school, Officer Asshole was seething. Which may have been why it was Alec that first heard the faint banging and crying sound coming from one of the lockers they passed on the way to the principal's office.

Alec stopped, jerking the policeman holding his arm to a halt as well. Maybe, just maybe, if he could distract the cop with something else…

“Did you hear that?”

“Kid, if you think I'm going to fall for another of your damned games, you've got another thing…”

“No, seriously.”

This time, the man registered the change in Alec's tone or something, because he actually paused.

“What the…” he muttered, and stepped towards the noise. Alec, arm still clutched in the cop's hand, followed.

As the crying grew louder, Alec started to notice the smell. It was foul, but he thought he recognized blood and rot, and possibly vomit.

Officer Asshole knocked lightly on the locker the sound (and smell) seemed to be coming from. “Hello? Is someone in there?”

There was a cracked scream, that devolved into a repeated hoarse “let me out, let me out, let me out!”

When Officer Asshole finally got the locker door open (which, Alec thought, might have been quicker if he hadn't been keeping half an eye on Alec), what spilled out would have turned anyone's stomach. Even Alec's.


	2. Witness

Alec was really starting to hate Officer Asshole. Well, technically it was Officer Argus, but Alec thought that he had well and truly earned his nickname by now. Anyone else would have lost track of some truant when confronted by a girl who had just spilled out of a locker filled with bloody filth, but no, not Officer Asshole. Paramedics rushed through. Biohazard containment people set up perimeters. More police officers arrived to buzz around. Teachers and students swarmed about like a kicked ant hill. Yet, somehow, Officer Asshole always kept an eye reserved to make sure that Alec couldn’t find an opportunity to escape.

Not that the whole thing wasn’t interesting. It wasn’t every day that you got to see a girl shoved into a locker full of rotting used feminine hygiene products, even for a Vasil. Dear old dad could be pretty creative with his punishments and revenges, as could Alec’s siblings. Alec didn’t think this was in the same league, but it wasn’t too far off. Which was really quite impressive, for whatever highschooler had done this.

Not that he really cared right now. He had his own problems. 

“What's your name?” asked a new police officer, whom Alec had proceeded to dub Officer Jackass.

“Alec”

“Your full name,” Officer Jackass said with a sigh. 

Alec paused a moment. He'd never bothered to come up with a new last name. He certainly wasn't going to use his real one. To buy time, he tossed off “it's not short for Alexander or anything. Just Alec.”

Officer Jackass gave him a tired look. “What's your last name, kid?”

“Wilborn,” Alec replied. If Lisa hadn't been being so pissy this morning, he never would have gotten into this mess. She could just deal with him borrowing her name. 

“So, Mr. Wilborn, what do you know about this morning's incident?”

“Same as that officer who brought me here does. I was with him the entire time. Why not ask him?” Alec tipped back in his chair, and looked around at the room they were in. It was some kind of classroom, he supposed. It wasn't like he'd ever been in one, but he'd seen pictures and videos. Of course, in those the desks hadn't been shoved aside to make room for an impromptu interrogation table. 

Officer Jackass gave him a look of growing dislike. “Officer Argus will be making his own report, but right now I want to hear your story.”

“Well, a girl fell out of a locker, covered in bloody crap. The end.”

“What happened before that?”

“The locker door opened.”

Officer Jackass glared at him. “You know, this will go much faster if you just cooperate.”

Alec smirked. “Yeah, it probably would.”

-=T=-

After quite some time, in which Officer Jackass learned jack squat and Alec learned that the girl was named Taylor Hebert, Alec was released from the interrogation room. He was not, however, free from the police. No, that would be far too convenient. Officer Asshole had waited outside, just to make sure he could personally escort Alec to the principal's office. Well, outside the principal’s office. For some reason, the principal was busy right now.

Well, that was fine with Alec. He had his own problems. Like the fact that he didn't actually attend Winslow, which the principal was sure to tell Officer Asshole. Alec wasn't sure what would happen after that, but he really didn't want to find out. So, how was he going to get out of this…


	3. Mother

Lisa's phone rang. 

Lisa was less than thrilled with this. She'd been working all morning, doing a last minute project the boss had sprung on her before any sane person should be awake. She was tired, her head hurt, and she did not need a distraction right now. She was almost done, and then could get some sleep. She glared at her phone. 

It wasn't a number she recognized. She was about to dismiss it as a wrong number, when she recognized the local area code. That was curious. Reluctantly, she answered. “Hello?”

“Mrs. Wilborn, this is Winslow High School, calling about your son, Alec.”

Lisa's brain locked up. _Mrs._ Wilborn? Her _son?_ What the hell?!

Her power, however, decided to helpfully make the connection for her. _Alec's in trouble. Is relying on you to bail him out._

_Knew this story would upset you,_ it added with a painful twinge. Thanks, power. 

Lisa’s brain reengaged. If Winslow High School was calling about Alec, that clearly meant that he had somehow been confused as a student there. Of course, he wasn't, so they would have no records for him. Which would lead to awkward questions. But why would they think Alec attended Winslow? 

“Mrs. Wilborn?”

Oh, yes. She was supposed to be a concerned parent in this conversation. Not that she had much experience with what concerned parents acted like, she thought bitterly. “Yes, I'm here. What about Alec? He's not in any trouble, is he?” Yes, best to fish for information, not to mention more time to think. 

“Well, I'm afraid that he is. A police officer brought him here after picking him up for truancy.”

Truancy? Really? Lisa didn't think the BBPD cared enough. She firmly stopped her power from explaining why. She didn't need to know. 

More importantly, if the police were involved, they might try to look into Alec's public records. Which, of course, didn't exist. And not even Lisa knew what they might find if they started looking further. She had stopped looking into Alec's past shortly after coming to the conclusion he might be one of Heartbreaker’s kids. She most definitely did not need her power providing insight into Heartbreaker’s “family life.”

Shuddering and clamping down on her power before it could start doing exactly that, she brought her train of thought back to the conversation. “Oh, no. Is he in some kind of legal trouble?”

“I'm afraid we're not sure, ma'am. Your son claims that he has your permission to stay home from school, but even if that’s not true, the amount of trouble he’s in would depend on how often he’s been absent before this. The problem is, I’m afraid we have no record that his absence is excused. In fact, we have no record that Alec Wilborn attends Winslow at all.”

So, that was Alec's story. Unfortunately, it still left too many questions unanswered. However, if she could put the school on their back foot on this matter, they might not be inclined to ask those questions. 

“What do you mean you don't have any records?” Lisa shouted. “Are you telling me that you lost my son's school records? What kind of school do you people run?”

“I, I'm sorry, ma'am, but I don't - Let me get Principal Blackwell on the line.”

Lisa smiled, despite what the yelling had done to her headache. That had worked better than she'd expected. 

_They're hiding something. Something happened that they don't want to admit to. Alec was involved somehow._

Again, Lisa smiled through the spike of pain that shot through her head. So, Winslow had a dirty secret, did they? Well, this might just be easier to deal with than she'd thought. It almost made up for Alec claiming she was his mother. She really didn't want to think about that. Not only did it imply that she was at least in her thirties, she did not want her power to start going down any paths involving childbirth, its prerequisites, or being married. Especially if that process had resulted in Alec. Like if his father really was Heartbreaker. 

Lisa gagged, and felt bile rise in her throat. She reflexively clamped down on her power before it could do anything with that inspired thought.

“Mrs. Wilborn? This is Principal Blackwell.” said a harassed sounding woman from the cell phone, to Lisa's relief. 

“Blackwell! What the hell is going on at that school of yours?”

“Mrs. Wilborn, I can assure you-”

“Assure me? I trust you with my son, you fail to even remember that he attends your school, and that's all you have to say? What exactly is going on at that school of yours?”

“What do you mean?” asked Principal Blackwell. Yes, definitely nervous. Time to push for information. 

“Your secretary was clearly not mentioning something. What else happened to my son?”

“Nothing happened to him, he's fine. He just witnessed something that happened here this morning, and the police asked him to give a statement.”

Oh, crap. Alec was a part of some investigation now? That was going to make it much harder to make him disappear. On the other hand…

“My son was a witness to a crime, at your school, and made a statement to the police, and you weren't going to tell me!”

“No, no! Of course I was going to inform you! I just felt that it would be better to straighten out this misunderstanding with his records first, before going into that. It really was very minor.”

“What. Happened.” Lisa grated out. 

“When your son was being taken through the school, he found a student that had been trapped in her locker with some trash. The officer escorting him released her. They just wanted his description of the events.”

Lisa didn't need her power to figure out that Blackwell was seriously downplaying this. She didn't really need Blackwell to tell her what had happened, Alec could do that, but why was Blackwell so worried? 

_Doesn't want a more thorough investigation. Is worried what might turn up. Is hiding something related to the girl in the locker._

Interesting, but Lisa was tired, already had a headache from overusing her power, and still had to get Alec out of this. Not that she wanted to. This whole thing was his fault, he could just rot in high school for all she cared. 

Actually…

“Look, Principal Blackwell. I can see that you've had a stressful morning. And I suppose it's possible that Alec's last school failed to get his records transferred to you. This was supposed to be his first day. How about this. You just do what you can to get him settled, and I'll deal with his trying to play hooky on his first day.”

“So he doesn't have your permission to be absent?” asked a relieved sounding Blackwell. 

“No, he doesn't,” Lisa replied. “I'll take care of that, though you're perfectly welcome to give him detention if you feel it's appropriate. Just get him settled into school.”

“Very well, Mrs. Wilborn,” Blackwell said with an audible sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” Lisa said, and hung up. 

Lisa sighed, letting her face fall into her hands. There. Alec was no longer under suspicion from the police, and she had her revenge for him making her need a gallon of brain bleach. Plus, it would get Alec out from under foot for half the day. At least, if he wanted to prevent the police from putting his face on missing person posters or whatever. 

Lisa couldn't wait to finish Coil's stupid research “request” so that she could go to bed.


	4. Class

Alec slouched into Principal Blackwell's office, and flopped into the chair across the desk from the woman herself. She glowered at him, not that he could tell anything from that. She'd been glowering when she walked into her office as well. 

“I called your mother,” she began. “And while she confirms that you did just transfer here, she did not give you permission to be absent.”

Alec blinked. What? He'd specifically handed Lisa a ready made excuse, and she'd contradicted it? She was deliberately making him go to school? 

It occurred to him that maybe using a story he knew would piss her off had been a mistake. Still, he was so going to get her back for this. 

“So, Mr. Wilborn, since your previous school failed to forward your records to us, I'm going to have to ask you a few questions. How old are you?”

Alec wasn't actually sure of that, since no one in the Vasil family really cared about exactly how old anyone was. Dear old dad did keep track of his kids’ birthdays, but they weren't exactly something to celebrate. Rather the reverse, actually. Still, he had a rough idea. “Fifteen.”

“Are you a freshman or a sophomore?” Blackwell asked. 

Alec didn't even know what that meant, but freshman sounded like it translated to ‘noob,’ so that was out. “I'm a sophomore.”

“What foreign language did you take? Winslow offers Spanish, French, and German.”

“French,” Alec automatically responded. He already spoke French fluently, and if he was going to be stuck here, he was definitely going to do as little as he could get away with. 

“What electives do you wish to take?” Blackwell continued. 

“None,” Alec smirked. Blackwell glared. 

This continued on, with the result that Alec was given a class schedule and shown to his next class by Blackwell's receptionist. 

Classes. School. Alec had never been to school before. Some of his siblings had gone, probably just to get away from the rest of the family. 

Not that he wasn't educated. No, Nykos Vasil wouldn't stand for that. His idea of a proper education basically amounted to “You had better know what I expect you to know or else,” but he did make sure that his children had the resources to get that education. Which he did by using his power on a couple of hot school teachers. They made sure the kids could read and write, knew basic math and science, and so on. 

Alec didn't know if that would help in this next class. He wasn't even sure what it was. Blackwell had said the name, but it hasn't really registered. World Tissues? Something like that. 

Alec arrived at the classroom, only to discover that it seemed to have started already. At least, he assumed that was why a bunch of teens were sitting on uncomfortable looking chairs at ugly desks, more or less looking at a man in his late twenties who looked way too enthusiastic to be here. 

As the teacher looked round at the opening door, the assistant said “Mr. Gladly, this is Alec Wilborn. He just transferred here from another school.”

“Hello, Alec,” Mr Gladly said with a smile. “Please, call me Mr. G. Mr Gladly is my father.” He winked like this was supposed to be amusing. “Please, take a seat. We're just introducing ourselves, since the class only started this semester.”

Alec looked around, and decided to take a seat in the back, next to a long haired guy who was staring into space. Alec figured that anyone who had already checked out like that was someone he could live with. 

“So, we all just heard your name, so why don't you tell us something about yourself while you're at it? We're going to be having a lot of group discussions in this class, so just share something to break the ice.”

Tell them something about himself? Like, what? “Hey, I'm really a supervillain?” “My dad is a serial-rapist?” “I like playing video games?”

Well, actually, that one was kinda boring, but it would let him ignore the rest of this whole introduction thing, so why not?

“Hi, my name is Alec, and I like video games.” he said in his best “I am a bored robot” voice. He then sat down on the chair, tipped his seat back, and put his feet on the desk. 

“What kind of games?” asked a blond guy near the front. He kinda made Alec think of a dog that had just seen a squirrel. 

Alec blinked. “Shooters, mostly. But I'll give just about anything a shot.” Heh, that hadn't been intentional, not that he'd admit it.

“Console or PC?” the kid asked. 

Well, if he wanted to talk video games, it sounded better than this introduction to World Tissues or whatever. “Console all the way.”

“Oh, that's a shame, you should get into PC, that's so much better. My favorite right now is this MMORPG that…”

Alec was beginning to rethink his assessment of talking with this guy when Mr. D or whatever his name was interrupted. “Thank you, but we only have so much time per student, and I don't know about you but I'd prefer to finish a little early. So, how about you introduce yourself now?” 

The kid slammed to a halt like he'd hit a wall and was taking a while to process that it was in his way. “Oh, my name. Right. Greg Veder.” 

“Thank you Greg. Now who wants to go next?” Mr. B said as he smiled at the class. 

Alec proceeded to instantly forget everyone's name as soon as they said it. (Except the guy next to him, who apparently went by Sparky, and played in a band. Bass guitar, maybe?). He also noticed when Mr. P started going down his attendance sheet to check who was left, and mentioned in a low, talking-to-himself tone that some Taylor girl wasn't here. It wasn't until a girl stage whispered that it was a good thing too, or they would have to fumigate the room, that Alec recognized Locker Girl’s name. Apparently, the girl who got shoved in a locker full of filth wasn't very popular. Who knew? 

After giving a brief summary of the class (which was actually called World Issues), Mr. Q dismissed them after telling them that their homework was to find some article on a world event and read it. 

After that, he called out “Mr. Wilborn, would you mind if I talked to you a bit?”

Alec's immediate instinct was to reply that he would mind, but upon reflection he decided that since he didn't have anything better to do, he might as well. 

He slouched over to Mr. W and leaned against the wall. “Yeah?”

Mr Z lowered his voice a bit. “I kinda hate to ask you this, it being your first day and all, but would you be willing to do me a favor?”

Alec raised his eyebrows. The guy seemed to be trying to be covert about this. He was totally failing, Alec could see several students clearly listening in, but the fact that he was trying at all was a bit odd. “What?” he replied, cautiously. 

“Would you be willing to keep track of the work Taylor will be missing? I'll talk to her other teachers to get it to you, but I was wondering if you could get it to her?”

Well, this was odd. “Why me? I don't know her.”

“Well,” Mr. G said, “apparently this isn't the first time Taylor's had problems with bullying, though it is the worst. And I know you were the one who pulled her out. So you're the one person I know I can expect not to… ‘lose’ her work.”

What. He'd just got here, and he was the person most likely not to screw her over? He looked around, and noticed a group of girls deliberately not looking at him and the teacher, except when they shot quick, rather predatory looks their way. For some reason he didn't quite understand, it kinda ticked him off. 

“I don't know. I don't even know how I'd get it to her.” Why was he even considering this? Was he that bored? 

“I can get you that too. Just, please? I think this would come much better from you than anyone on the faculty right now.”

“Eh, sure. I guess.” Alec said, still not sure why he was agreeing to this. 

“Thank you,” Mr. C said, and wandered off. 

Alec looked around the room, at the students clustered together, and particularly at the group of girls who were whispering to each other and still shooting glances his way. He suddenly realized at least part of why this whole thing pissed him off. It kinda reminded him of his siblings. It reminded him of home. 

Well, shit.


	5. Lunch

Alec looked down in disbelief. He'd been wrong. This place was worse than his family. 

At least his family had halfway decent food. 

The surly lady behind the counter, wearing a stained apron and a puffy hair net, scooped up a spoonful of… whatever that was and dumped it on the tray Alec was holding. 

Alec looked down the line. Nothing seemed to be more edible than the slop on his tray. 

Screw it, he'd seen a vending machine somewhere, he'd just buy something from it. 

He left his tray on the counter, ignored the lunch lady telling him to come back for it, and ambled off in search of the vending machine. 

He quickly found it in a corner of the cafeteria. It was in surprisingly good shape, considering the state of the rest of the school. Then again, Alec reflected, if the “food” they served here was like this every day, the students had good incentive to respect this alternate source.

Alec had just finished purchasing a nicely balanced diet of candy, cookies, chips, and soda when he heard several people coming up behind him. He turned around to see a group of three rather pretty girls.

The first he recognized as one of the eavesdroppers from World Issues, a short, cute brunette. The other two were an athletic looking black girl and a nicely curvy redhead. All three of them were staring at him with rather intent expressions.

The cute one spoke up as soon as he turned around. “You’re Alec, right? The new guy from World Issues?”

Alec shrugged in feigned disinterest. These girls wanted something. “Yeah?”

“Well, my name’s Madison, and I just wanted to introduce you to my friends, Emma and Sophia,” she said, gesturing at Redhead and Black Girl. “Would you mind if we sat with you?”

Alec shrugged. “Sure,” he said, and flopped into a chair at the nearby table. He wasn’t sure if he minded or not, really. On the one hand, having three pretty girls to look at beat staring out into space. On the other, these particular pretty girls had tracked him down quite quickly for some reason, and he rather doubted it was because they’d immediately fallen head over heels for his sexy body. He smirked. Not that he’d ever claim otherwise out loud.

He opened his soda and the bag of chips as the girls sat down across the table from him. He leaned back in his chair and popped a chip into his mouth. The redhead, Emma, smirked and asked “So, how do you like Winslow so far?”

“It sucks,” Alec replied, eating another chip. Sophia laughed.

Alec decided he really wasn’t in the mood for small talk right now. “Alright, so what do you want?” 

Emma and Madison looked a bit surprised at that, but Sophia smiled. “Right to the point? I can respect that.”

Emma leaned forward and put her elbows on the table, hands interlaced. “Madison told us that she overheard Mr. Gladly ask if you would collect Taylor’s homework for her.”

Alec raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, so?”

“Well,” Emma replied, “we thought it would be funny if she never got it.”

“And then, when the teachers ask where it is, it’ll look like she just didn’t care to do it,” Madison elaborated.

Alec took a drink of his soda. He didn’t really think it sounded especially funny, but maybe he was missing something? Then again, they were just asking for him not to do something that he wasn’t sure why he’d agreed to anyway. Still… “Yeah, unless they figure I just didn’t bother to give her the homework.”

“So? It’s your word against Taylor’s,” Emma said in a tone that implied that no one would ever believe Taylor.

“Besides,” Madison added, “if the teachers all know that you picked up all her homework, why would they think you didn’t give it to her?”

Ok, so that wasn’t quite no effort, but it was less than he’d agreed to. Still, there was something odd about this. “So, why do you even care? I mean, someone just basically put the girl in the hospital. Stealing homework assignments seems a bit lame compared to that.”

“Well, it’s not just about Taylor,” Madison said. “It’s also about you.”

“What about me?” Alec asked. He really didn’t like the sound of that.

“Well,” Emma said, “everyone knows you let Taylor out of her locker. That means that they’ll associate you with her. We’re giving you a chance to fix that.”

How generous of them, Alec thought with a mental eye roll. He doubted they actually cared about him, so they just wanted to keep him away from this girl. Apparently they really wanted her isolated for whatever reason. 

He didn't really care. He didn't know any of them, and didn't even want to be here. But then, they really seemed to want this. If he could literally get something for doing nothing here, he was going to see just how much something he could get.

“So what's in it for me?” he asked. “What do I get out of this?”

“Oh, you know, we'll get you in with the right crowd, introduce you to the interesting people, that sort of thing,” Emma said, while leaning in a way that ever so slightly emphasized her rather attractive figure. Alec had to admit, it was well done. She'd managed to emphasize her attractiveness while in no way promising or even implying anything. Just emphasizing the point that she was something he should want. It could probably get most of the boys and maybe some of the girls in this school to bend to her whims. 

She'd have to go a lot farther than that to really get his interest, though. 

“I don't know, I might have a better setup here. I mean, it's not every day a guy gets to play knight in shining armor and has a damsel in distress practically falling at his feet. Granted, if I'd imagined the scenario, there'd have been much less mess, but still…”

“Come on, you can do better than Taylor,” Emma grimaced. 

“You'd have a hard time doing worse than Taylor,” Madison added. 

Sophia, for some reason, looked especially angry. “You'd stick up for that loser?” she practically snarled.

Alec opened his chocolate bar. “Why not? I mean, I'm not definitely going to, but I don't just want to throw the option away out of hand.” 

“Taylor Hebert is the lowest of the low in this school,” Emma scoffed. “You do not want the kind of attention that associating with her would give you.”

Had that been a threat? He took a bite of his candy bar and started chewing, making an extra point of looking uninterested. “What, I already got questioned by the police. Are you saying that there's actually something in this school more obnoxious than getting asked stupid questions by a cop?”

“How about you just don't find out,” Sophia glared. 

Huh, they really had been threatening him. Yeah, no. There was no way he was going to let three random high schoolers threaten him into doing anything. 

Not that he had any intention of letting them know that just yet. 

“Eh, whatever. I'm all for not doing things. Let me know if there's anything else you need not done.”

For the rest of lunch, he talked with the three girls. After all, they'd just given him something to do at school. Really, he supposed he could almost see the attraction of picking on Taylor. But why pick on one beaten down girl when you could piss off three girls that thought they were better than you instead?


	6. Hospital

Alec had never before realized how absolutely fascinating clocks could be. At least, they were fascinating compared to his English class. He really wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing. Something about words? All he knew was that the clock was much more entertaining. If he looked really hard, he thought he could just barely see the minute hand move. Sadly, his power did not work on clock hands. He'd tried. 

Suddenly, the bell rang. Alec was vaguely surprised, apparently this clock was a bit slow. 

He was just getting up when the teacher (Alec didn't remember his name, it might have been Milton?) asked to talk to him. 

Alec slouched over, raising an inquiring eyebrow. 

“Mr. Gladly gave me this to give to you. It's Taylor Hebert's work for today.” Milton handed over several sheets of paper. “I've been informed that Miss Hebert is still at Brockton Bay General Hospital, so if you could bring them to her there, it would be greatly appreciated.”

Alec nodded and took the papers. He’d never actually been in a hospital before, so he really didn’t know what to expect. Probably nothing especially interesting, but he did want to talk to this Taylor girl. If he was going to mess with her tormentors, he’d kinda like some idea what he was dealing with.

And so ended Alec’s first day of school. He briefly considered whether he wanted to go to the hospital before or after stopping by the loft, but quickly decided that he’d rather stop at the hospital first. It’d mean less travel, and anyway he suspected it would really mess with Lisa if he didn’t arrive as soon after school let out as possible.

Alec followed the crowd of students out of the school, and then paused, realizing he didn’t know which way to go. He couldn’t check his phone, as it had died during English. Well, he could probably find the hospital on a map at the nearest bus stop.

-=T=-

“Hello, I'm looking for Taylor Hebert?”

Alec was in the lobby of Brockton General. Or, he supposed, a lobby, as the hospital seemed to have entrances everywhere, and they probably all had lobbies. Anyway, he was in this one, talking to a woman that actually looked less pleased to be here than he did. 

“Hebert…” the woman said, not even looking up from her computer. “Hebert. She's in the psych ward, room 253.”

Alec turned to leave, then turned back around. “Which way is it?”

The woman pointed towards a wall, again without looking up. “Sign’s over there.”

Alec wandered over towards the sign she'd indicated. Psych ward? He had no idea what he had expected, but it wasn't that. 

He followed the signs until he reached a locked door with a guard at the front. Alec blinked. “Uh, is this the psych ward?”

The guard, a fairly beefy guy with black hair just barely sticking out of his scalp, nodded. “Yeah, it is. Just sign yourself in, and I'll let you through.” He gestured to a book open on a stand, with a pen chained next to it. 

Alec looked down, and saw that it had columns for “name,” “visiting,” “time in,” and “time out.” He didn't especially want a record of his visit, since he was supposedly not doing this. On second thought, if those three girls actually bothered to check, this probably wouldn't work even if he didn't sign in, so he didn't see the point of complicating this. 

He did make a point of making his entry practically illegible, though. 

The guard opened the door with a buzzing noise, only to reveal a second door a few meters away. What was this, an airlock?

Alec walked in, and the guard closed the door. After a few seconds, the second door made the same buzzing sound followed by a click, and Alec pushed open the presumably unlocked door. 

It didn't take him long to find the correct room. In it, laying on a bed, was a girl with black curly hair. Presumably Taylor; Alec hadn't noticed much about her when she came out of the locker. He'd been a bit distracted by all the filth. 

All that was gone now. She had a few bandages on her face and arms, but otherwise appeared fine physically. 

The fact that she was staring blankly at the ceiling, occasionally tossing about in an agitated manner, probably explained why she was in the psych ward, though. 

Oh, and she already had a visitor. A thin, slightly balding middle aged man with glasses sat slumped in a chair. Despite that, Alec could still tell that he was pretty tall. He also looked completely exhausted. 

He looked up, blinking, as Alec stopped in the doorway. “Hello?”

“Hello,” Alec parroted back, leaning up against the doorframe. A quick comparison between the man and Taylor seemed to imply he was her father. Not that this gave Alec much of a clue how to proceed. Normal family relationships weren't exactly something he was familiar with. 

“Uh, can I help you?” the man asked, still seeming a bit groggy. He looked at the girl on the bed. “Did you come to see Taylor?”

“Yes,” Alec replied, and shrugged. “I was kinda expecting her to be conscious, though.”

“The doctors say she is conscious, actually. Just unresponsive.” The man looked at the girl again, then suddenly came more alert and snapped a suspicious glance towards Alec. “How do you know my daughter?”

Alec smirked. “I don't.”

The man (Mr Hebert, apparently) leaned forward, gripping the chair's armrests so hard his knuckles went white, fury on his face. “If you've come to harass my daughter, after all she's been through, you've got another-”

Alec lifted up his hands, palms forward. “Hey, no need to get angry. That's not why I'm here at all.” He shrugged. “Kinda the opposite, really. I was just making sure her classwork actually got to her.”

Only partially mollified, the man sank back down into his chair, muttering “Classwork. Those bastards let this happen, and they're sending her classwork? Well, I suppose it's not like her classes are going to stop…”

Alec shrugged. He looked around the room. If Taylor wasn't awake, or whatever, he didn't really have much reason to stay. He pulled the folded papers detailing Taylor's classwork out of his pocket, and negligently tossed them to Mr. Hebert. “Well, here it is. I guess I'll be back with tomorrow's?” He turned to leave. 

Looking startled, Mr Hebert caught the folded paper. “Thank you, uh, what was your name?”

Alec stopped and half turned around. “Alec. Alec Wilborn.”

Mr Hebert nodded, stood up, and held out his hand. “Thank you, Alec, for helping my daughter.”

Alec stepped forward, and somewhat hesitantly grabbed the man's hand. Mr Hebert clasped his hand in turn, and shook it firmly. 

As he left, Alec wondered at the tiny warm ache he felt in his chest.


	7. Debriefing

Alec entered the loft to find his entire team already there. Rachel was playing with one of her dogs on the floor, while Brian and Lisa sat on the couch. Not unheard of, really. Rachel’s clear irritation at being here, and Lisa's head snapping around to the door as soon as he opened it, indicated this wasn't a coincidence. You know, subtle hints like that. 

“Where have you been?” Lisa practically barked at him. 

“Well, mom, I was at school, just like you said I was supposed to be,” Alec smirked, and sprawled into an open armchair. 

“I am not your mother!” Lisa grated. “and I meant where you were after school.”

“Mom, why would you disown me like that?” Alec asked, while giving his best puppy dog eyes. “Besides, that's not what you told Principal Inkwell this morning.”

Lisa rubbed her forehead. “It's Blackwell, you-”

“Alright,” Brian interrupted. “You two can get back to strangling each other later. Right now, I want to hear what the heck happened. Alec?”

Alec stuck out his tongue at Lisa, then started before she could say anything. “Well, you see, it was like this. I was sitting in a coffee shop, minding my business like a good little citizen, when I was suddenly attacked by a wild truant officer.”

“Wait,” Brian said, “Brockton Bay has those?”

“Either that, or the police really need a hobby,” Alec shrugged. “I told him I was a student at Winslow, so he took me there. However, as the officer led me through the school’s dred halls, I heard the cries of a maiden in distress!”

Ignoring the bemused looks of his teammates (except Bitch, she just looked pissed), Alec continued, “Naturally, I refused to be taken any farther until I had aided the poor damsel.”

“You were just hoping you could distract the officer enough to get away, weren't you?” Lisa asked, one eyebrow raised. 

Alec shrugged. “Well, duh. Didn't work, though.”

Brian spoke up. “So, why was the girl in distress?”

“Yes, Alec, give details,” Lisa chimed in. “Blackwell told me she'd been shoved into a locker with a bunch of trash, but I'm sure she was hiding something.”

Alec snorted. “Well, that's true enough, if by trash you mean bloody rotting tampons.”

All three of his teammates looked revolted. Lisa had that look Alec was pretty sure indicated she'd just gotten a power-induced TMI.

“So, as I said, despite all the police, medics, teachers, and students that swarmed the scene, I got questioned about the incident, then taken to the principal's office. I told them that I was a student, but had permission to stay home, and gave them Lisa's number, saying she was my mom.”

“So that's why-” Brian muttered. Then he shook his head. “So, Lisa. I take it the school called you. What did you tell them?”

Lisa glared at Alec, then sighed. “Not much. I told them that Alec had just transferred into Winslow from another school, that today was supposed to be his first day, and his previous school must have failed to forward his records. I managed to keep them on their back foot enough that they probably won't question it, but they probably will if he stops attending, or if I don't arrange for them to receive his transcript. And that's not including the fact that Alec's now a witness in an ongoing police investigation.”

Brian rubbed his forehead. “Great. So, Alec, what might they find if they start looking for your records?”

Alec shrugged. “Probably nothing. I don't have any records here in the States. I'm not even sure I have a birth certificate, and if I do, it's Canadian. I suppose they might possibly find me through facial recognition…”

“And what would that bring up?” Brian pressed. “Besides apparently that you're an illegal immigrant.”

Alec was just considering whether or not to answer that, when Lisa, rubbing her temples, interjected “You're one of Heartbreaker’s kids, aren't you?”

Ignoring the shocked looks on Brian's and Rachel's faces, Alec raised his eyebrows. “What took you so long, Miss Know-it-all?”

Brian turned from Alec to Lisa. “You knew?”

“I suspected,” Lisa replied. “Didn't really believe it. Didn't want to. I mean, Heartbreaker.”

“He's not really all that,” Alec scoffed. At the incredulous looks this gave him, he shrugged. “Sure, he's got that big scary reputation, but he's not really that big a fish.

“But yeah, it's possible they might find my old Hijack identity. That could go badly. Especially if news gets back to dear old dad. He'd probably send out someone to ask me to come back before coming himself, but I plan on being gone well before then.”

Brian made a low whistle. “Yeah, best if we avoid that.” He looked at Alec. “Looks like you're going to school now.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Alec said, waving dismissively in Brian's direction. “Still don't see why you had to contradict my excused absence story,” he shot at Lisa. 

“Right, excused absence on your first day. That makes sense.” At Alec's “I'm not buying it” stare, she continued, “I might also have been getting back at you for making me play your mom.”

“Hah, thought so.”

Lisa frowned at him. “That still doesn't explain why it took you so long to get back. I expected you to come here immediately after school finished, if not sooner.”

Alec yawned. “Stopped by the hospital to visit Taylor.”

Brian blinked. “What, the girl from the locker? Why?”

“Because I'm a caring individual who wanted to make sure she was all right?”

Both Brian and Lisa snorted. Rachel had turned her full attention to her dog. “Fine, I got roped into collecting her classwork for her. Apparently, I'm just about the only person they'd trust to actually give it to her.”

“And you actually bothered to?” Lisa asked skeptically. “Why?”

Alec gave another shrug. “Some girls told me not to. Actually tried threatening me. Pissed me off, so I wanted to get back at them. Thought Taylor might have some idea how. Didn't exactly work, since she's catatonic in the psych ward, but oh well.”

“Catatonic? Really?” Brian asked.

“Apparently,” Alec waved a hand airily. “that's what her dad said the doctors said. Seemed accurate enough, she was staring into space, sort of twitching occasionally.” He caught a glance of Lisa out of the corner of his eye. She looked oddly like she'd just been hit with a mallet. “Why are you looking like that?”

Lisa closed her mouth. “I think she triggered.” 

“What?” Brian and Alec said in unison. Alec continued, “I think I'd have noticed.”

Lisa shook her head. “Not necessarily. Some powers can be subtle, and if I'm right, she probably got some kind of Thinker power, and hasn't adjusted to it yet. It sounds like she's got sensory overload.”

“Huh. Possible,” Alec admitted. He wasn't exactly unfamiliar with the phenomenon, though his experience was more with emotional overload, but he could see it. 

To everyone's surprise, Rachel spoke up. “You're not trying to recruit her, are you?” she asked, glaring suspiciously at Lisa. 

“Well, maybe,” Lisa shrugged. “Even if we don't, it'd be good to know about her before she, say, joins the Wards.”

Alec held up a finger. “Not that I care, but wasn't the whole point of this conversation trying to keep civilian identities out of our cape business?” Alec had never really been sure how that stuff worked. It wasn't like his father had ever played any attention to that idea. 

Lisa frowned. “True, but I don't think it'll be a problem. It's not like she even has a cape identity yet. Besides, that stuff is mostly used to avoid people using families to attack or coerce the cape in question. Spying is much more of a grey area. Hell, I'm sure the PRT keeps as much of that information as they can on file, so it's not like they have room to complain.”

Lisa paused. “Point is, Alec, it'd be a good thing if you could keep an eye out for her using powers.”

“Yes, mom,” Alec smirked. Lisa glared.

After a pause, Rachel said “What, is that it? Why did you even need me here?” With a huff of disgust, she got up and left, presumably to go do something with her dogs. Whatever. Alec didn't care. Brian and Lisa started talking about something, but he stopped paying attention. He had more important things to do. Like figuring out if he could get a video game running from here, or if he actually had to get up.


	8. Moments

Alec woke up to the sound of knocking. He was in his room in the loft, and someone was knocking on his door. 

Not for the first time, Alec cursed the fact that he was a light sleeper. Now that he wasn’t with his family, he didn't have to snap awake to make sure someone else wasn't trying something. He could sleep as long as he liked, here at the loft. 

Except now, someone was trying to wake him up. Probably Lisa, he thought, listening to the continued knocking. Brian or Rachel tended to be more forceful, plus Lisa was more likely to bother him. His guess was confirmed when Lisa called out “Alec, get up, you lazy slug.”

Rather than respond, Alec took a look at his phone. 7:30. The hell, Lisa? Alec pulled up his blanket and tried ignoring her. Maybe she would go away. 

The knocking continued. “Get up, Alec. You need to be at Winslow by 8.”

Oh. Winslow. Damn. 

Alec briefly weighed the pros and cons of staying in bed vs. not risking his identity by being late. Then he realized that bed already had him prone and grappled, so it had clearly won. 

Lisa apparently did not agree. “Alec, I know you're awake. If you don't get up, I will make you regret it.”

Stupid cheating powers. Well, two could play at that game. Alec felt out with his own power to where Lisa's nervous system would be, and found the hand Lisa was knocking with. With an irritable flip of his arm, (this kind of thing was so much easier if he could reference a movement of his own) he jerked her arm back. The pause in her knocking, combined with a sudden yelp of pain, indicated he'd succeeded in getting her to punch herself in the face. 

Alec snuggled back into bed as he heard Lisa curse and storm off. Ah, victory. 

He was soon disabused of that notion by a cup of cold water, complete with ice cubes, being dumped onto his head.

-=T=-

Alec stared up at the whiteboard, completely lost. He'd never really cared about math much, but he'd figured (heh) that he knew as much as he really needed.

Apparently, he did not know enough to have any idea what was going on in this “trigonometry” class. The teacher, a Mr. Quinlan, had covered the board with strange drawings, symbols, and words that were supposedly mathematical. For all Alec could tell, they were instructions on how to perform some magic ritual. Maybe trigonometry was really a codeword for Introductory Demon Summoning?

Actually, Alec thought, that would be pretty cool. He flipped through the textbook he had been handed, looking for pentagrams or other mystic symbols. Maybe there would be a drawing of what the imps one would presumably summon in such a class would look like. To his faint disappointment, what he found was some wavy lines and triangles. Lots of triangles. 

Bored, Alec started drawing a demon on a blank page in the front of the book.

-=T=-

Alec once again found himself in Principal Blackwell's office. She was still glowering at him. Alec was beginning to think her face had frozen that way. He was almost tempted to use his power to check that, but playing with facial expressions tended to be more effort than it was worth.

“Mr. Wilborn, a pizza delivery person just showed up at the school office. He claimed that he had a delivery to go to Alec Wilborn. Do you have an explanation for this?”

Alec paused. “I was hungry?”

Blackwell drummed her fingers on her desk once. “Mr. Wilborn, I'm afraid that I cannot allow you to order food to be delivered to the school. If I let you do so, then other students would try it as well. We cannot have that many delivery people going through the office. Is that clear?”

“No, actually.” Alec replied. “There's one important detail you left out.”

Blackwell sighed. “What, Mr. Wilborn?”

“Where's my pizza?”

-=T=-

Lisa's phone rang. Lisa sighed. She really didn't want to talk to Coil, and he was just about the only person likely to call her on this phone. Unfortunately, ignoring it was not an option, so she answered. “Hello?”

“Hello, this is Winslow High School calling, may I speak to Mrs. Lisa Wilborn?”

Oh. Right. Winslow. Lisa tried to convince herself this was an improvement. Sadly, it actually was. 

“I'm Mrs. Wilborn,” she replied, keeping the annoyance at Alec for that identity out of her voice. “What's this about? Did you not get Alec's records?” Coil should have sent them to the school. Reliability with what help he did offer was one of the few plus sides of working with the man. Of course, she could easily have found out with her power, but she really didn't need to when she could just ask. 

“Yes, we did, but that's not why we're calling. We're calling because your son has so far failed to turn in a single homework assignment.”

Lisa resisted the urge to bang her head against her desk. Of course he hadn't. She probably should have seen this coming, really. “Oh, dear. Is he in trouble?”

“Yes, but so long as he starts doing his work, there shouldn't be a problem.”

“I'll see that he does,” Lisa replied, this time letting some of her irritation come through. 

“Thank you, Mrs. Wilborn,” the woman on the other side said before hanging up. 

Lisa put her phone on her desk and her head in her hands. She did not need this. She didn't really know what would happen if Alec continued to ignore his schoolwork, but she was sure she didn't want to deal with it. So, what would make him care enough to actually act like a real student?

-=T=-

Alec trudged into the loft and made a bee-line for the couch. School was boring. Sure, he actually kind of enjoyed art, and most of the teachers didn't notice or even care if he wasn't paying attention, but still. He wanted to start messing with those girls, but Taylor still hadn't woken up.

He sighed, flopped into the couch, and reached for his game controller. 

It wasn't there. 

He got up and looked around on the floor. Nope. He looked under the couch cushions. Not there. 

Alec thought. It was possible that Brian or Lisa had had an attack of tidiness. If so, they would probably have put the controllers with the games and game systems. He opened the cabinet they were stored in. 

It was empty. 

No controllers, no games, no consoles. Just a sticky note. He picked it up.

> Hi Alec
> 
> Winslow called. You're grounded. Do your homework.
> 
> Tt 


	9. Introduction

Alec slumped into a seat on the bus he took between Winslow and Brockton General. School sucked. Homework sucked, Not having video games sucked, and Lisa sucked. What also sucked was that he didn't even feel especially angry, just bored. Which, of course, was because his dear old dad sucked most of all. 

Besides that pinnacle of suckiness, the worst part was that Lisa had a point. As usual. If he didn't want to attract too much attention, he probably did have to do his homework. Or, at least, appear to. Most of it. Naturally, he was never going to actually admit that to her, she was insufferable enough as it was. 

Equally naturally, he wasn’t just going to wait for Lisa to return his video games. He could try to find them, but that would involve trying to figure out where she’d hidden them, which would be a pain, and would likely take a while. He could try to force it out of her, but that really wouldn’t be worth the problems it would create. He'd already tried getting Brian to make her give them back, but apparently Lisa had already talked him around to her side. 

Well, that just meant he'd have to get new video games. Maybe he'd take that Greg kid's advice and try PC games? Maybe Greg even had some decent recommendations. Maybe he could get him to write them down, then he wouldn't have to remember them, and could continue tuning out anything Greg said after the first 15 seconds. Greg didn't seem to notice; he still kept talking to Alec whenever they had free time together for some reason. 

Really, the hard part would be keeping Lisa from noticing that he'd gotten a computer. Maybe he could…

He cut that thought off as the bus reached the hospital stop, and began the now familiar trudge to Taylor's ward room. Walk in, talk to the receptionist, thread through the halls, sign into the psych ward, get the guard to let him in. It was all quite routine by now. He slouched into the room - and stopped. 

Taylor was sitting up in the hospital bed, awake. She'd evidently heard him approach, too, because she turned towards the door, and her eyes widened, then narrowed behind the glasses she was now wearing. She tensed, almost like a cornered animal, and her eyes flicked over him. "Are you the Alec who's been bringing my schoolwork every day?" she asked, voice wary. 

Alec leaned against the doorframe. "Yep."

"Why?" she asked, still suspicious. "Why have you deliver my homework? I don't even know you."

"Aw, you don't recognize me? I'm hurt. Hurt, I tell you," Alec grinned, clutching at his heart. "After I found you in that locker and let you out?"

"I was told a policeman let me out," Taylor corrected. 

Alec shrugged and flipped his hand dismissively. "Yeah, after I pointed it out."

A dark look came over Taylor's features. "And why did you do that? No one else cared. Why risk helping the school pariah?"

"I didn't know, what with it being my first day," Alec replied. "Really, I didn't care either, I was just trying to distract the police officer so I could go back to skipping school."

Taylor looked rather baffled at his frank reply, but forged on. "So, if you don't care, why are you here? What do you want?"

Alec grinned. "So suspicious! It's not like everyone's out to get you." He gave it a beat. "Oh, wait, it kinda is like that. Sucks to be you."

"No kidding," Taylor muttered.

Alec sat down on one of the room's chairs and rested his feet on the end of Taylor's bed. "Ok, so I'll admit, I am a part of a plot to screw you over. I'll even explain. So, one of your teachers nominated me to give you your homework, apparently on the theory that I would be your best shot at actually getting it. For some reason, I agreed to this.

"In under ten minutes, these three girls pounce on me." Alec paused. "Sadly, not literally. Care to guess who they were and what they wanted?"

"Emma Barnes, Madison Clements, and Sophia Hess," Taylor practically spat. "Probably asking you to give me the wrong homework assignments."

"I assume so, I didn't really catch the last names," Alec replied. "And that's actually a much better idea than what they came up with. Have you ever considered giving them suggestions on how they could improve their technique?"

Ignoring the joke, Taylor asked "so what was their plan?"

"They asked me not to give you the homework," Alec replied, one side of his mouth quirked up. He tossed Taylor the list of assignments he'd brought. "So, how am I doing so far?"


	10. Support

"So, let me get this straight," Taylor said, incredulity clear in her voice, "You're offering to help me, not because you actually care, but because you want to piss off Emma, Madison, and Sophia?"

"Yep," Alec replied. 

"And you're just telling me this… why?" Taylor asked. 

Alec shrugged. "I don't really care enough to pretend I care."

"So why should I help you? Ticking them off will just make them come down on me harder. And on you, for that matter."

Alec pointedly looked around at the hospital room they were in, and at Taylor in her hospital bed and gown, and raised an eyebrow. "Harder than this? Seriously?"

Taylor grimaced. "Maybe not, but I wouldn't put it past them. Besides, I meant that they'd step up their day to day harassment. And a little payback just isn't worth them making my life that much more miserable."

That was not what Alec wanted to hear. This just would not work if Taylor was going to just lay down like a doormat. He needed to convince her, which really wasn't his thing. Emotions, motivation, and drive weren't something he could relate to. 

… then again…

"Look, I don't know why these girls have it out for you. But I do know one thing. People don't just stop riding you about stuff. They'll just keep going until they're satisfied, which isn't going to happen. If you want to get out of this, you have to do something."

"Like what?" Taylor asked, scorn in her voice. "The staff won't help, I tried that all last year. Either there's no proof, or it's my word against theirs, or they get a slap on the wrist, if that."

"Well, you could start by not impersonating a doormat," Alec suggested. Taylor glared at him, and he smirked. "Also, last I heard there were a couple of police officers looking for people to interrogate. Just give them some names, and they'll go at it. 

"And don't you tell me they won't care," he pointed at the girl. "One of those assholes picked me up for truancy. No way he'd pass up a chance to be a hardass about this." He paused. "These are the same guys, right? I can't remember their names. Have you talked to them?"

"Officer Argus and Officer Norris? Yes, they talked to me this morning."

Alec smiled and waved a hand in something vaguely resembling satisfaction. "Yeah, that was their names. Knew one of them started with an A. What'd you tell them?"

"Nothing," she replied, slumping into her hospital bed. "No one said anything, even though I know at least two dozen people saw it, so what was the point?"

Alec cocked his head slightly to one side. "Has it occurred to you that you might be suicidally depressed? 'Cause this whole 'what's the point, imma wallow in misery' thing is kinda starting to sound like it."

Taylor stared at him. "What?"

"Well, I suppose you might not be quite suicidal, you aren't showing the obvious signs like, say, stabbing yourself, but then at the rate things are going, you might not need to." Alec shrugged. "I could be wrong, I'm more familiar with more extreme cases of that kind of thing."

Taylor was still staring at him, more incredulous than confused now. "And that doesn't bother you at all? What's wrong with you?"

"Do you want a list?"

"Just my luck," Taylor mumbled, holding a hand to her face. "I finally get someone willing to help me, and they're a psychopath."

"I've been told sociopath is more accurate, but I don't know what the difference is," Alec said offhand. "Does this mean you're on board with screwing over those girls?"

With a sigh, Taylor nodded. "Fine. I'll help. Just… go away, I'm too tired to deal with this right now."

Alec levered himself up from his chair and gave an exaggerated bow. "Very well, mademoiselle. I shall see you later." And with that, he exited the room.


	11. Release

Alec had never really cared much about what day of the week it was. Aside from what was on television and when stores or restaurants were open, he'd never really seen much difference. Now, though, he understood why so many people really liked Fridays. Fridays meant he finally got a break from school. And, by extension, going to Brockton general. Not that the hospital was nearly as obnoxious as Winslow, but he could still think of better things to do with his day. 

Though, now that Taylor was awake, it might be more interesting, he thought as he made the now familiar trudge to the psych ward. If he could convince her to help think of ways to torment her tormentors, they'd have lots of material to pull from by the time Taylor actually got back to Winslow. He could come up with stuff, but Taylor knew them, and knew pranks they had pulled that could be turned back on them.

Assuming he could keep her out of doormat mode. 

As he turned into Taylor's room, he was somewhat surprised to see her alert and staring at the door expectantly. Odd. He was about to comment, but her face fell and she said "Oh, it's you."

"You were expecting Armsmaster?" Alec returned, eyebrow raised. 

Interestingly, she started a little at the hero's name. Curious, maybe Lisa's theory that Taylor had triggered was correct. Alec still had no clue what her powers might be, if she had them. 

"No, my dad is coming to take me home today, and I thought it might be him," she explained. 

"Nope, me," Alec said. "And your schoolwork. Does this mean I won't have to bring this to you anymore?"

"Maybe. I need to recover my strength before walking around all day, but I can do that at home. We'll see how I am after the weekend."

"Well get better soon," Alec said, flopping into a chair. "I'm getting really bored, and those girls are getting way too smug."

Taylor rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the concern for my health, Alec."

"You're welcome," Alec replied. "The police were buzzing around the school today. I take it you talked to them?"

"Yes, I did," Taylor sighed. "I told them about the bullying, and that it was probably Emma, Madison, and Sophia who were responsible for… the locker. I also gave them my notebooks."

Alec blinked. "Notebooks?"

"I've been keeping track of everything they've been doing in some notebooks," Taylor explained. "It only covers this last school year, but still. The police told me that it wasn't really proof, but I think they were impressed by how much there was." Taylor shrugged. "We'll see."

She still sounded skeptical to Alec, but that was better than resigned. He thought about asking if he could see the notebook, but then thought better of it. Much easier to ask Taylor for a highlights reel if he wanted ideas.

Alec turned around as he saw someone enter the room out of the corner of his eye. Mr. Hebert had arrived, carrying a duffle bag. He was followed by a rather beefy looking nurse with a rather hard look on her face. Overall, she reminded him of Rachel. 

Well, except that she was carrying a clipboard with some kind of paperwork on it. Alec took a second to enjoy the mental image of Rachel confronted with paperwork.

By the time he started paying attention again, the nurse had pulled a curtain around the bed and disappeared behind it with Taylor and the duffle bag, leaving Mr. Hebert eyeing him rather intensely for some reason. Alec looked back at the man, less intensely but with more attention than Mr. Hebert probably thought. 

Alec didn't often bother, but he could read people pretty well when he cared to. People were sort of the family business, after all, and he didn't get to cheat like Cherie or bulldoze through like dear old dad. No, nothing so easy. He'd had to learn the hard way, working to get the tools he needed to keep up with his siblings. Even when he did use his power, he had to put in time and effort to get the full effect. He didn't like having to work for his abilities, but that didn't mean he wasn't good at it. 

Taylor's dad was something of a mix between an office type and a workman type. His appearance and build said paper-pusher, but his body language and expression said he was the type to get his hands dirty when necessary. Probably some kind of manager for a labor group. Or maybe a gang, but he looked too worn out for that. The gangs were doing pretty well for themselves in this town. 

Alec couldn't figure out the look Mr Hebert was giving him, though. It was like the man was deciding if he wanted to thank Alec for being here or throw him out the door. That wasn't the odd part, Lisa and Brian looked at him that way all the time, but usually Alec knew what he'd done to irritate them. Huh. 

Mr. Hebert spoke first. "Alec, yes? Still delivering Taylor's classwork?" His eyes flicked to the sidetable the classwork was resting on. 

"Yep."

"I see." Alec didn't, but at that point the nurse pulled the curtains back, revealing Taylor, sitting up in regular clothes.

Very regular clothes. 

Alec wouldn't exactly call himself an expert on fashion, but he did take a certain pride in his appearance. One of the few good things he'd gotten from his father was good looks, and Alec liked to dress to match that. He considered his costume to be the classiest of all the Undersiders. He dressed to stand out. 

Taylor dressed like she wanted to become so bland it would qualify as a Stranger power. Her clothes were dark, colorless, and shapeless. She even hunched over, like she was trying to shrink to nothing.

Except, since Alec actually was noticing her, it just looked pathetic. It was depressing, and Alec couldn't even feel depressed. 

"There, that looks better," Taylor's father told her, though it sounded kinda forced. 

"I don't know, I think I preferred the hospital gown," Alec snarked. "It was so much more bright and cheery." 

The nurse cracked a laugh. "Ha! Normally I'd say your boyfriend just wants a peak at your ass, but you look gloomier than this place on a night shift. You need to brighten up your wardrobe, girl. Add a splash of color."

Taylor's face apparently agreed, as it decided to go bright red. Her father shot a glare at Alec that half threatened to kill him, and agreed with how dreary Taylor was dressed. Alec belatedly recognized Mr Hebert's hostility as "If you try anything with my daughter, you're dead." To be fair, Alec thought, it wasn't as if he'd had much experience with that look. His family didn't exactly work that way. 

Taylor was somehow managing to look embarrassed and glare at Alec at the same time, muttering "He's not my boyfriend, and I really don't want to attract attention."

Alec rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because you've been doing so well at avoiding attention recently. No, you're getting new clothes before you go back in that school." 

Taylor looked at him incredulously. "Are you threatening to drag me off to try on clothes?"

Alec snorted. "Pffft, no. One, I'm pretty sure your dad would kill me," he said, gesturing casually to where Mr Hebert's expression was in fact promising exactly that, "and two, I was totally going to get someone else to do the grunt work. Say, someone with two X chromosomes who actually knows about women's clothing."

"I can't go shopping now," Taylor protested. "They're not even letting me walk out of the hospital, I have to borrow a wheelchair."

Somewhat to Alec's surprise, her dad said "By the time you're ready to go back to school, you should be well enough to wander around a few stores. Besides, getting something more cheerful would be good for you." He shot another death glare at Alec. "Assuming…"

"Yeah, yeah, we'll bring a chaperone, and get back before the carriage turns into a pumpkin," Alec waved dismissively. 

While Taylor reluctantly caved into the plan, and the Heberts prepared to depart, Alec considered the major problem with the plan. He didn't actually know any girls he could get help from. Lisa would work, but with her acting as his mother, that would be complicated at best, and Lisa wasn't exactly feeling inclined to do him any favors at the moment. Rachel was right out; he'd have better luck asking her if he could borrow her dog Anjelica for help. He just didn't know many people in this city. Though maybe…

Alec flipped out his phone and scrolled through the contacts. He was pretty sure he'd gotten the number off of Brian's phone earlier… There. 

As he left the hospital, he pushed the call button, and after the fourth ring, it picked up. 

"Yo, Laborn residence, whaddya want?" asked a bored young female voice.


	12. Introductions

Aisha waited until just before her cell phone would have dropped the call to push the accept key. "Yo, Laborn residence, whaddya want?"

"Hey, I'm calling for Aisha Laborn, is she-" The voice, male, probably a teenager, languid, and definitely no one Aisha recognized, paused for a moment. "Wait, I thought this was her cell phone."

Aisha smirked, and let it carry over into her voice. "It is. So, I'm pretty sure I don't know you, so who are you and where'd you get my number?"

"I'm Alec, I work with your brother, and I stole it off his contacts list," he replied without an ounce of shame. 

Right, one of her brother's "coworkers." Brian had never told her anything about his cape life, but there were only so many options for which cape he could be in this city. Still, she might as well ask. "Oh? You know Lisa, then?"

"Blonde, green eyes, freckles? Smiles like she knows a dozen things you don't, and unfortunately she's right?"

Aisha snorted. That was Lisa all right. "So, you'd be the one that isn't on the wiki, and that Brian doesn't want me talking to?"

"Sounds about right," Alec agreed. 

"Ok then," Aisha said, sitting back in an armchair and kicking her feet up. "What do you want to talk about?"

-=T=-

"Ok, ok, so let me see if I have this right," Aisha said, holding back an urge to giggle. Or maybe chuckle. Or cackle. "You, a professional supervillain, got caught by what is probably the only truant officer in the city? And now, not only do you have to go to school, but you're making one of your supervillain teammates play your mom?"

"Yep," Alec confirmed with a small chuckle of his own. 

"And now you're asking me to go shopping with you and your new girlfriend, and help you dress her up so you two can mess with a bunch of Bitches with a capital Queen Bee? Even though we've never met?"

"Close enough, yeah," Alec replied. "You interested?"

"Dude," Aisha cackled, "there is no way I'm gonna miss this."

-=T=-

Aisha munched a fry as she waited at a table just outside Fugly Bob's. The restaurant was one of the most well-known locations near the Lord Street Market, which made it an excellent place to meet. This was especially true since most patrons were inside, away from the weather, making it easy for Alec and Taylor to pick her out. And, unless she missed her guess about the guy walking towards her right now, Alec had just done so. 

He was average height, wearing sneakers, nice jeans, and a high-quality white jacket with the hood up, which did not quite hide his rather pretty face, or his dark, curly hair. Aisha smirked as that face tracked onto her, then did a double take, resulting in one eyebrow lifting in something like incredulity.

"You're Aisha, right?" The guy asked as he sidled up to her table and slung one leg over a bench. "Gotta say, that particular look wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

Aisha bet not. She was wearing combat boots, and jeans with more than enough holes for her favorite neon-green fishnets to show through. Her blouse was actually more for warmth than looks, but since it was completely covered by her jacket, it wasn't like that actually mattered. The jacket itself was fleece lined leather, and a bit big for her, but she didn't mind. It used to be Brian's, and the look on his face whenever he saw the patches she'd sewn onto it was more than worth any inconvenience. 

"Maybe not, but I'm what you need. You want to get this Taylor girl some better outfits, sure, but you want more than that. You want something that tells the world it can go screw itself, right?" Aisha smirked. "Trust me, I know how to pick out an outfit that says 'screw you.'"

Alec laughed. "Clearly. And at least now I know why Lisa was trying not to laugh when I told her where I was going." He reached for one of her fries. 

Aisha pulled them out of reach. "My fries. Go get your own."

"And ruin my professional reputation?" Alec put a hand over his heart. "Never! Besides, it looks like I don't have time."

Aisha looked in the direction he had just pointed, and saw a battered pickup truck pulling to the side of the road. She looked back to Alec, only to find him grinning at her past the pair of fries sticking out of his mouth, and waving with a hand that held several more. "You suck," she said, though she was smiling as she did. 

Aisha studied the girl that finally got out of the truck's passenger seat. She was tall, and her long, curling hair was quite nice, but other than that she really didn’t stand out. Faded jeans, generic sneakers, brown hoodie and gray jacket. Nondescript, easy to ignore.

But, as Alec had noted, it wasn’t really working for her. They'd have to try something else. 

Her father got out of the driver's side, and Aisha could immediately tell that he wasn't happy to see her. At first, she considered the possibility that he might have Empire leanings, but she soon recognized that it was her outfit, rather than her skin color, that was setting him on edge. She'd seen both reactions enough to tell the difference by now. 

They walked over to Aisha's table, and Aisha studied Taylor some more. The girl was guarded. Aisha could see wariness in her posture, in the way she hung slightly behind her father, in her eyes, and in the set of her wide, expressive mouth. Some of it seemed to be towards Alec, but Aisha could tell that quite a bit was because of the way she was dressed. 

Yes! Three for three, oh yeah. 

"Hey Taylor, Mr. Hebert!" Alec called out.

"Hey, Alec," Taylor replied. She turned slightly and asked "And you're Aisha, right?"

"Yea-p," she said, popping the end of the word. "Nice to meet you. You too, Mr. H."

Taylor's dad gave her a nod that seemed faintly reassured but still concerned, and turned to his daughter. "Taylor, you're still recovering, so I don't want you staying out too long. Call me if you get too tired." (or if your new friends turn out to be dangerous lunatics, Aisha filled in) "You have your new cell phone?"

"Yeah, dad," Taylor said, giving him a deeply questioning look that Aisha really didn't know how to interpret. 

After responding with a more reassuring look, Taylor's dad turned back to Alec and Aisha. "You two look after my daughter, hear?"

Alec nodded and gave a lazy wave. "Sure thing."

"Scout's honor!" Aisha chirped with a cheerful salute. 

Looking unreassured, but not as downright worried as any of Aisha's scout instructors would have been, Mr. Hebert walked back to his truck and drove off, leaving the three of them to shop.


	13. Shopping

As Aisha, Taylor, and Alec walked towards one of the thrift shops nearby, Aisha admitted that there might be a problem. Aisha really liked messing with people through the way she dressed, and Taylor had been no exception. Problem was, if she was going to help the girl out, she needed Taylor to think she knew what she was doing. And Taylor clearly didn't trust Aisha's sense of style at all. 

Unfortunately, Aisha wasn't sure how to fix that. As far as she was concerned, either you got it or you didn't. How the heck was she supposed to explain it? 

… eh, screw it, she'd figure it out as she went. She turned to Taylor and smirked. "Ok, spit it out."

Taylor looked at Aisha, eyeing her as if she was expecting an attack. "Spit what out?"

Aisha's smirk widened. "Come on, it's obvious you don't trust me to make myself look good, let alone you, right?"

"Well, no," Taylor admitted. 

"So why not?" Aisha asked. 

Alec was amused. Taylor was bemused. "Why not what?"

"Why do you think I can't help you look better?"

Taylor threw up her hands. "You don't even make yourself look better!" 

Aisha pulled back a bit at the sudden outburst of frustration, but Taylor continued. "Do you know what girls like me would do to have the kind of looks you do? You have so much to work with, but you're wasting it! You could be drop-dead gorgeous, but instead you're just, just-"

"Trashy?" Alec offered. He hadn't seemed surprised by Taylor's outburst at all. 

"Yes, that," Taylor agreed, having apparently run out of steam. "If I dressed like that, Emma would probably be saying that I-" She'd been looking at the ground, but she shot a glance at Aisha before continuing. "I don't want to give her that kind of ammunition."

Aisha was pretty sure she knew what Taylor had stopped saying, and for a moment Aisha wanted nothing more than to scratch the girl's face off for thinking that way. But she’d promised to help her, and besides, Taylor hadn't been giving her own opinion. So with a mental IOU for that Emma bitch, Aisha smiled. "And that, girl, is why you need my help."

Taylor stared. "What?"

"Taylor, I'm trying to piss people off!" Aisha laughed. "And I'm clearly succeeding. You sounded just like my brother does when he complains about my clothes. It bugs the hell out of him when I dress like this. And if I can do that, I can help you with this."

"And how is dressing trashy supposed to help me?" Taylor asked. 

"Well, trashy might not be the right choice for you," Aisha admitted. "We'll have to figure out what styles fit you best, and say the right thing."

Taylor still looked skeptical, but she asked "So what is this 'right thing' my clothes need to say? What's wrong with what I'm wearing now?"

"What isn't wrong with it?" Alec smirked. Taylor shot him a glare, but looked back at Aisha. 

"Well, you're not so much saying something as trying to avoid being noticed, right?" Aisha asked. At Taylor's sullen nod of agreement, she continued, "which would be fine if it was working, I guess, but from what Alec said, it's not. And if someone's really looking at you, it just makes you look kinda-"

"Pathetic," Alec interrupted, his tone a bit more edged than usual. "Those bitches are gunning for you, so all it does is make you look like an easy target, one that no one else will notice."

Aisha glanced back from the unusually intense look Alec was directing at Taylor to Taylor herself, whose expression had changed as well. Instead of being offended or defensive, the girl was frowning thoughtfully. "That… fits, I suppose," she reluctantly admitted. 

"Yeah, it does," Aisha confirmed. "And screw that. Screw being ignored, screw hiding, and screw them. That's what you need to be saying. And believe me, if there's one thing I can make your clothes say, it's 'screw you.'"

-=T=-

"So, how are you planning on making my clothes say 'screw you'?" Taylor asked once they reached the women's section of the first thrift shop. 

"Well, let's see," Aisha said, flipping through a rack of blouses. "There's a few things to consider. Firstly, no matter what style we settle on, it needs to compliment your figure instead of hiding it like you are now."

Aisha was quite familiar with the type of glare the other girl shot at her for that. "What figure?"

"Well, nothing noticeable under those baggy clothes," Alec drawled. When Taylor shot him a dirty look, he held his arms out in mock innocence. "What, I'm agreeing with you!"

Picking a fairly simple bright orange blouse off the rack, Aisha turned to the other girl and held it out next to her. "He's an ass, but Alec has a point. I need to know what I'm working with, so we need to get you into something less concealing. Yeah, that'll do." She nodded at the top, then looked down at Taylor's baggy jeans. "Well, even those clothes can't completely hide your height, so I'll bet you've got some good legs on you. Do ya exercise?"

Taylor blinked. "I started running a few months ago, though I haven't been able to for a while."

"Good, that should help. No idea how fast you'll see results, my bro's the musclehead, not me, but… there!" She picked out some jeans and held them up for inspection. "These'll do for now. Come on!" She nudged Taylor in the direction of the changing rooms and tossed the clothes to Alec for him to carry. 

Alec raised an eyebrow as the clothes hit his chest and dropped to the floor. "I hope you weren't expecting me to haul that around."

"Well, yeah," Aisha said, hand on her hip. "Girls take guys shopping with them for three reasons: to torture them, to make them carry stuff, and to get them to pay for it at the end. Why did you think we brought you?"

"Moral support." Alec deadpanned. 

"You? Moral support?" Aisha laughed. "Who'd be that desperate?"

Taylor shook her head and picked up the clothes. "Apparently me. Come on, let's get this over with."

-=T=-

As the three of them continued shopping, Aisha began to realise that Taylor might not have been joking. Not exactly. Oh, she probably meant it that way, but as Aisha dragged the girl through racks of clothes, with an occasional "helpful" prod from Alec, Aisha noticed that Taylor saw just about everything about herself in the worst possible light. Convincing her that something would look good on her was like pulling teeth or something. Probably not the best metaphor, but it was close enough. At any rate, they had only managed to pick out a few outfits (which she and Taylor were carrying, except for a blouse that had stayed draped over Alec's shoulder when Aisha tossed it at him) when Aisha noticed a shift in the way the other girl was dragging her feet. 

"Ok, I think that's enough for today," Aisha declared as she picked up a sweater that had failed to stay on Alec's other shoulder. "We don't want you tiring yourself out, Taylor. So now would probably be a good time to call your dad for a ride while I make Alec pay for all this."

Alec was protesting this when Aisha turned to the front of the store and stopped. 

Brian was here. And he didn't look very happy.


	14. Bro

"Hey, since when am I paying?" Alec protested. "I thought we'd agreed I was here for moral support. And maybe as a walking clothes rack."

Aisha didn't respond. In fact, she wasn't paying attention to him at all, instead staring intently towards the store entrance. Wanting to know what could distract her from getting the last word, Alec followed her gaze until he found a familiar figure: Brian. Her big brother. 

Body posture could tell you a lot about a person, especially if you'd been around them long enough. Alec had been on the Undersiders with Brian for several months now, so he knew how Brian stood, how he moved. He held himself with an almost military bearing, loose but in control. Or, that was how he usually was. Now he looked rigid, his head moving sharply as he scanned the store, fists clenched at his sides. It reminded Alec of Bitch when she was stopping herself from ripping someone's head off. And it was usually Brian (or Grue, whichever) that stopped Bitch from ripping off people's heads, which was a problem. Especially since the head Brian was looking for was probably Alec's. Alec was rather attached to his head; he'd really prefer not having to do without it. 

Alec had known that introducing himself to Brian's sister behind his back would piss him off. He had not considered the possibility of Brian finding them out shopping. How could Brian have known - oh, right. Lisa. Duh. 

Well, Alec would just have to come up with a plan. Unless Aisha had one, but as they glanced at each other, Alec could tell she didn't. And of course Taylor didn't even know what was going on, though the way she was looking between Aisha and Alec seemed to indicate she'd noticed something. Still, that didn't- Oh. His eyes flashed back to Aisha. When she returned his look, he tilted his head towards Taylor, then rolled his eyes towards Brian. 

Aisha grinned. "Huh, hey Taylor," she said to the other girl with a look of pure innocence on her face (which Taylor was clearly not buying) "you know how I said you could ask my brother for workout advice? Apparently he came to give me a ride, so we can ask him now. Hey, Brian!"

This last remark was accompanied by a cheery wave. Her brother, who had by then located them and had been striding towards their location, did not seem particularly reassured by the greeting, though he did slow his pace slightly. "Hello Aisha," he replied in his 'I am not amused by this crap' voice. "Alec." That one Alec recognized as 'I am about to throttle you.'

"Bro, meet Taylor," Aisha continued before Brian could. "Taylor, Bro. We were just talking about you."

Taylor gave a hesitant wave. Brian pulled his glare away from Alec and, with a subtle release of tension, turned to Taylor. He was even smiling slightly as he extended his hand. "Hello, Taylor. It's nice to meet you. I hope these two haven't been giving you too much trouble?"

Reluctantly, Taylor stepped forward to take Brian's hand in a firm handshake. "No, they've been quite, um," her eyes flicked over to the shirt that still hadn't fallen off Alec's shoulder, "helpful."

With the conversation successfully diverted, it was time to disengage. He even had a ready excuse. As Aisha steered the conversation towards exercise (a topic which Alec knew from experience Brian could go on and on about even when Alec showed the opposite of interest), Alec reached out to pick up the clothes Taylor was carrying. "I can go pay for this while you three talk," he said to Taylor. 

Unexpectedly, Taylor in turn grabbed the clothes Aisha had with a look to the brother and sister and replied "Actually, I think I'll come with you, and we can meet after the register, right Aisha?"

Aisha seemed to be about to object but, when Brian agreed, just gave a resigned "OK," and Alec escaped with Taylor following. Not exactly how he'd expected hiding behind her to work out, but whatever. 

As they got out of earshot, Taylor asked quietly "So, how did you manage to piss him off?"

"What?" Alec responded in innocent ignorance. To which Taylor appeared to be immune. 

"Don't give me that. He was about ready to hit you. Why? How do you three know each other?"

Ah, that. He'd figured something like this would come up, but he'd intended to use Brian as a vague explanation of how he knew Aisha, not having to explain how he knew Brian. Now he needed a story. "We kinda… work together. Me and Brian."

For some reason, Taylor's eye twitched slightly at that, but it wasn't nearly as extreme as her eyebrow, which shot up in skepticism. "You have a job?"

Alec would feel insulted, if he could feel insulted. And if she wasn't so right. "Yeah, sorta. It's kinda irregular." As Taylor continued to look skeptical, he elaborated, "My mom set it up." Yeah, blame Lisa, that was working out fairly well, really. Besides, it was sorta true. 

As they got in line for the cashier, Taylor was frowning. "Okay, but that doesn't really explain how you know his sister, or why he was so mad."

Alec smirked. "Well, those are easy to explain. We don't know each other."

"What."

"Well, we didn't, not before this. Brian kinda made sure of that. He seemed to be worried that we'd get along a bit too well or something."

"He has a point," Taylor murmured. "So, what, you called her and set this up behind his back? That explains it."

They had reached the cashier by then, and Alec paid for the clothes, despite Taylor's insistence that she could do it herself. Alec found it oddly satisfying, actually. They had just started walking to meet up with Aisha and Brian when Taylor actually started snickering. When Alec turned to look at her with raised eyebrows, she was not quite managing to cover her smirk with her hand. "You didn't know, did you?"

"Know what?" He asked. 

"When you asked Aisha to come shopping, you didn't know she dresses like that. You'd never met her before."

Alec grinned. "Nope. Complete surprise."

Taylor was still chuckling about that when her dad picked her up. But then, so was Alec. It was pretty funny.


	15. Turnabout

If he’d thought about it, Alec would have said that his first morning at Winslow would also prove to be the most disgusting. At first, this had been because he’d expected it to be the only morning he spent at the school, and then he would have, quite reasonably, assumed that it simply wouldn’t have any real competition. First period biology class, complete with occasional dissection labs, was starting to catch up though. Especially since at least one student had added vomit to the smell of formaldehyde. Not that he actually minded. Neither did his lab partner. At least, not that.

“Wilborn, if you don’t stop messing with the frog and actually do your share of the work, I’m going to pin your hand to the table so you at least won’t be in the way,” his lab partner growled, holding her scalpel ready to do exactly that.

Alec smirked back, arranging the frog’s right ‘hand’ over its soon to be exposed heart. “I promise to do my share, Sophie. No need to throw a Hessy fit.”

“I will stab you,” the girl promised, pointing the scalpel at Alec’s face.

“I can’t help if I’m in the nurse’s office,” Alec countered. “Which, now that I think about it… Do you do requests? I’d kinda like to skip a few days…”

“No. Now put the frog down so we don’t get even more work to do.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Alec complied. Sophia proceeded to eviscerate the frog with remarkable speed and efficiency, and they started attempting to identify which squigly lumps went with each name. The frog did indeed do its share of the work, but Alec mostly let Sophia take the lead. They were almost done when some other girl wandered over to Sophia. Alec wasn’t even sure if he’d ever been told her name, but since she had been one of the girls that threw up earlier, and her face was greener than their frog’s, she was now Pukeface.

“Hey, Sophia, did you hear?” Pukeface asked in an annoyingly nasal voice. It was probably just because she was holding her nose. Probably.

Sophia, who looked less than pleased by the interruption and less than impressed at the girl’s weak stomach, asked “Hear what? I’m not really in the mood for guessing games.”

Pukeface looked a bit intimidated by the less-than-warm reception, but she continued on, “I heard that Taylor came back to school today.”

Sophia scowled. “Seriously? You’d think she could take a hint and leave already.”

“Yeah, I know, she’s sooo dumb,” Pukeface nodded vigerously. Of course, Alec was pretty sure she’d have agreed just as much if Sophia had said the sky was purple leopard print. With some people you didn’t even need Master powers to get them to agree with anything you said. “But anyway, Julia told me that there was something different about the way Taylor was dressed.”

“Huh,” Sophia shrugged. “Maybe she ran out of crappy clothes or something. I’m sure I’ll hear all about it at lunch.” Then she smiled at Alec. “That and some other things.”

Pukeface looked between them speculatively. “Oh? You already set something up?”

“Me?” Alec smiled. “I didn’t do anything.”

-=T=-

Pukeface didn't stop trying to find out what was up for the rest of the class. Unfortunately for her, Sophia didn't seem to particularly like Pukeface for whatever reason, and Alec was rather enjoying holding out on her. When the bell rang, he assumed that he'd won the little contest, but apparently she also shared Alec's next class, World Issues, so she continued trying to pry it out of him all the way to Mr. C's class.

Taylor had told Alec that she didn't have anything to turn in for her first class, so World Issues would be when the whole charade came down. Alec thought there was something rather appropriate about that, since that was where he'd gotten roped into this in the first place. Fitting or not, though, he'd get to see everyone's reactions in a few minutes. He supposed that would work better if the hangers on knew what was supposed to happen, but he didn't care enough to explain it to Pukeface. 

When he reached the classroom, Alec ambled to his usual place at the back of the room, and Pukeface gave up on him and veered off toward some other girls. One of them, he couldn't remember her name, but she was one of the ringleaders, caught his eye and gave him a wink. He winked back, and let his attention wander. He nodded to Sparky, who was completely checked out again, idly tapping his fingers. Truly, Sparky was the wisest of them all. 

Just about everyone had settled down and Mr. E was moving to begin the class when Taylor walked in. Alec was well aware that late entrances were a classic for getting attention, but this had actually been Taylor’s idea. For someone who tried so much to blend in, the girl really did know how to make an entrance. Which meant that most heads turned to see the New Taylor.

Taylor's old clothes had made Alec think of a scarecrow: weathered, loose and hanging off a frame of sticks. Now form fitting jeans and an open, still slightly oversized sweater combined with her long hair made her frame willowy rather than sticklike. Sturdy boots combined with wear and tear on the jeans had been about as far as Aisha could push Taylor towards "screw your opinion" punk, but personally Alec thought Taylor would drift further that way even without any encouragement. Taylor hadn't gone all in on wearing brighter colors either, but the sweater was a very light shade of grey, and her shirt was a vivid yellow that seemed oddly threatening. A matching yellow flower or butterfly adorned the hairband she'd included. Taylor had been strongly opposed to bothering with accessories, claiming that wearing them was just an invitation to have them stolen and ruined, but Aisha had managed to talk her into a few hair ornament things. 

On its own, the outfit wasn't all that extraordinary, but Alec thought the contrast with Taylor's usual "style" was actually pretty significant if you were paying attention. And, judging by the muttering that broke out around what's her name, the cute ringleader - Madison, that was it - quite a few people had noticed the change. 

Taylor didn't bother to acknowledge the attention, simply scanning the room for an open seat. Apparently the only one that wasn't claimed was the one right in front of Alec. It was a nice touch, really, having him actually behind her when she found out they'd talked him into stabbing her in the back. Assuming it was deliberate, which it probably was, judging by the look on Madison's face when Taylor nodded at him. 

"Alright, alright, I'm afraid we do have to get started now," Mr. G said, smiling at the class. "As I said last week, we're going to have a class discussion about the recent increasing tensions between Guilder and Drusselstein, so we need to get going so you can each share something you found over the weekend. So, Taylor, since you might not have had as much time to research while catching up this week, would you mind starting us off?" 

Alec wasn't really paying attention to Taylor's response. He'd been setting this up for a week now, there was no way he'd miss watching as smug anticipation turned to shock on the faces of Madison and her cronies. So, so worth it.


	16. Confrontation

"So, I'm curious," Madison asked in a falsely sweet voice as she leaned on one of the desks, "what made you think that was a good idea? Assuming you _were_ thinking." 

"Probably not," Alec said from his chair. "I try to avoid doing that. Way too much effort." He was still in the back of the World Issues classroom. Mr. P had allowed people to move around and talk for the rest of the class once everyone had contributed to the discussion, and taken the time to talk to Taylor about something at his desk. Madison had swooped down on Alec, with several of her cronies hovering just out of range to be part of the conversation. 

"Well, that explains it, then," Madison smiled. "Because only a _brainless idiot_ could possibly screw up at _doing nothing_."

"Hey, I'm pretty good at doing nothing," Alec protested.

"Really," Madison said, the sweetness draining from her voice as she glared at him. "Because I seem to recall that you agreed not to deliver Taylor's assignments, and you screwed up that."

"Oh, that's what you're on about. Huh, I guess I didn't not do that," Alec admitted cheerfully. "Clearly, I need to get back in practice."

"I'm afraid it's a bit late for that, Alec," Madison said regretfully, friendly act back in place. "I told you, this was your chance to fix your mistake. We gave you a way out of being associated with bottom rung trash like Taylor, but now…" she shook her head. "Well, if you insist on carrying books for the ugliest girl in the school, people might just start to think that's the best you can do."

"Please, give me some credit," Alec snorted. "It didn't take that much effort. I only had to bring her a few papers, not whole books."

Madison blinked, then scowled. "Stop playing dumb. You may think this is a joke, but you will regret this, I promise."

"Me? Regret?" Alec chuckled. "Nah. The look on your face was totally worth it."

"You will too regret this," Madison practically hissed. "I am not to be trifled with, as you'll find out soon enough."

"You know, you're pretty cute when you're mad, Mads," Alec smirked. "You should totally keep trying to glare me into submission."

Alec smiled as Madison spun around and stormed off, not quite in time to conceal that her cheeks had turned pink. He hadn't even been lying; it really did look good on her. 

"You seem to be enjoying yourself," Taylor commented, apparently finished talking with Mr. W. She glanced over to the huddle of girls that had formed around Madison. "I don't think I've ever seen her that furious. What did you say?"

"Not sure," Alec shrugged. "Wasn't paying that much attention." Idly, he thought back over the conversation. "Maybe she doesn’t want to admit that she’s too cute to be really intimidating?”

“You think she’s too cute?” Taylor asked.

“Too cute to take seriously,” Alec nodded. “She’s about as intimidating as an angry kitten.” Taylor glared. Alec smirked. “See, you’re much better at being intimidating.”

Taylor rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Alec. You really know how to compliment a girl.”

“Yep,” Alec agreed. “Every time I do, they get mad at me. One hundred percent success rate.”

Taylor shook her head, but a reluctant chuckle escaped her anyway.

-=T=-

Alec leaned against the wall by the school’s front entrance. As it had turned out, Blackwell didn’t object to food being delivered to the school if it wasn’t taken to the school office. Or maybe it was just that she hadn’t noticed that Alec was still ordering delivery. He had to admit, high school was teaching him valuable information; Alec hadn’t realised just how wide a variety of food you could have delivered. It was too bad that he really couldn’t get delivery to the Undersiders’ loft. Giving the address of your supervillain base to local restaurants was the kind of thing that didn’t end well. Whatever, at least that wasn’t a problem here.

As Alec walked back inside with a sub sandwich, he was greeted by Taylor shaking her head disbelievingly. “Seriously, Alec? I thought you were joking about being too lazy to pack your own lunch.”

“What, and actually be responsible?” he deadpanned, unwrapping the meatball sub. “Please, I have standards.” After swallowing he noted “You found me pretty quickly, if you didn't really expect me to be here. I was expecting to meet up in the cafeteria.”

Taylor shrugged. "I wasn't planning to eat in the cafeteria anyway. Too…" she hesitated, "easy to be seen."

"Uhn-uh," Alec said through a bite of sandwich, the rest of which he shook in her face. "None of that. Being visible is the whole point. Well, and seeing the results. I did not put in this much effort for you to back out now."

"Right. Your effort"

"It is a rare commodity that should not be wasted." Alec confirmed sagely. "Speaking of which, I was led to expect dinner and a show. Après vous, mademoiselle."

-=T=-

"Hey, Tay-wor," drawled the red haired girl that had walked up behind Taylor, followed by Madison and Sophia. "I heard you got a new outfit."

Alec was pretty sure that standing in Taylor's blind spot was no accident, but despite stiffening slightly, Taylor didn't bother looking around before responding. "Hello, Emma. What do you want?"

"Well, Taylor, I'd heard some rumors that you actually developed something like a sense of style. Now, I thought that must be wrong, this is _you_ we're talking about. But if you let your new boyfriend dress you, well…" Emma smirked as her target flushed, lifted her hands to her face…

And failed to stifle a snicker. "Really, Emma? That's where you're going?" Finally turning around, Taylor looked at the other girl's incredulous expression while gesturing across the table. "You have _met_ Alec, right? He couldn't even be bothered to pick the clothes out. Got his girlfriend to do it instead."

"His _what?_ " Madison gaped. 

"Girlfriend, Mads," Alec smirked. "Don't worry, I'm sure someone will explain it to you when you're older."

"Yeah, Emma. Maybe you should leave. You wouldn't want to corrupt poor Madison's innocence with your salacious speculation, would you?" Taylor waved a hand at Emma, who seemed to be having trouble switching mental gears. Madison seemed on the verge of bursting a pressure valve and shooting steam out of her ears. The other one was a different story. 

"I told you not to cross us, Wilborn," Sophia said in a voice like steel. "I told you it was a bad idea to stick up for people like Hebert."

"Yeah," said Alec, teeth bared in a smile. "You did. And I don't like being told what to do."


End file.
